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Stephen Lee has, in
the opinion of many experts, the best cue action of all today's
top professionals and it is surprising that he has not won more
tournaments especially as he entered the professional ranks
in 1992 with a good amateur record behind him. He won the British
under-16 title in 1990 and the following year reached the southern
semi-finals of the English Amateur. In 1992 he won that title
beating Neil Mosley 13-8 and won the British under 18 championship
as well.
In his first season as a pro he failed to get past the qualifiers
in the opening two events but made it to the last 64 in the
UK Championship. Later on he reached the quarter-final of
the European Open and followed that immediately with two successive
last 16 finishes in the British and Asian Opens. Although
he failed in the preliminary stages of the world championships,
he achieved a ranking of 101 which was a promising start.
In 1993/94 he reached the quarter-final of the Grand Prix
and the latter stages of three other events and only failed
to make it to the Crucible in the final qualifying round.
He ended the season with a very creditable ranking of 40th
and on the verge of breaking into the highest level of the
game.
Three times Stephen reached the last 32 in 1994/95 including
a first appearance at the Crucible where he lost in the opening
round to Nigel Bond who went all the way to the final that
year. Failure to get beyond that stage meant that he only
climbed three places up the rankings. In 1995/96 however things
moved forward again and he got to the quarter-final of the
International and the last 16 in three other events. Despite
failing to get to the finals of the Embassy he got into the
top 32 at number 31. Two more quarter-finals came in the following
season and he won his first match at the Crucible, which coincidentally
was against Bond again. This ensured that he just squeezed
into the elite top 16.
In the 1997 UK Championship he reached his first ranking
semi-final and later on in the same season he made it to the
same stage in the Regal Scottish Open even though he did so
without having to beat another top-16 player in either event.
It was Ronnie O'Sullivan who ended his run on both occasions.
He reached his seeded place in every event and this consistency
helped him climb up to ninth in the rankings.
The
opening event in 1998/99 was the Grand Prix and
Stephen was lucky with the draw again. No top ranked
players blocked his path and he went on to his first
final as a professional. His opponent was Marco Fu,
the former world amateur champion who was ranked way
down at 377. Stephen had a comfortable 9-2 victory
and his first ranking title added £60,000 to his
bank balance. He went on to reach the quarter-finals
of the Irish and Scottish Opens and the China
International but had to pull out of the British
Open with a neck injury, which was to prove a
recurring problem over the next few seasons.
Nevertheless he had his best ever world
championship
where he also got to the quarters, but John Higgins
ended his hopes. A few weeks earlier, in the final
of the Benson & Hedges Irish Masters, he had led
Stephen Hendry 8-4 only to watch the Scot take the
next five frames for a 9-8 victory. His best season
so far ended with a ranking of sixth.
The 1999/2000 season began for Stephen in the Far East with
victory in the Millennium Cup invitation event and back on
the ranking circuit he reached two finals, the Welsh and China
Opens, but failed to win either. One semi and two other quarter-finals
pushed him up to fifth despite again having to pull out of
one event. 2000/01 was a difficult season as he had failed
a drug test and the threat of a disciplinary hearing was hanging
over him for much of the time. He still managed to reach one
semi-final and a couple of quarters but others did better
and his ranking fell to eight.
One criticism levelled at Stephen is that he has too often
let winning positions slip and that he has not yet learnt
how to finish off his matches. That may be so as he has certainly
come out on the losing side in many tight matches most recently
at the Crucible in 2001 when Peter Ebdon beat him 13-12. Only
time will tell whether he has it in him to add more titles
to his portfolio and add to his prize money total which stood
at £706,381 at the end of the 2000/01 season.
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